Hi:

1.) I have been in ill health and have been silent on the project for this Christmas but am now ready to go ahead. Those who wish to donate please send in your contributions as early as possible made out to Nassau Hobby Center:

Nassau Hobby Center
13 West Merrick Road
Freeport, NY 11520

Phone: 516-378-9594

IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE WRITE "Trains for Kids" on your checks AND on the mailing envelope in the lower left corner.



2.) NOTE: END DATE FOR DONATIONS IS: DECEMBER 1, 2009

Charlie will buy the Lionel flyer sets with expansion packs as the money comes in. Based upon past experience, we would expect to do 5 sets- not many but it is something to make some kids happy.



3.) AMBASSADOR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:

We will need many volunteers to be ambassadors this year so if interested please so indicate on this post. Ambassadors basically receive the sets form charlie and choose a worthy recipient ( underprivileged kids, sick kids, orphanages hospitals etc. ) then post that recipient before going ahead. The ambassadors set up presentations, take pictures, and feed back to us the results.



4.) Generally we have received donations of $25.00 but ANY AMOUNT either below or above this is fine. TEN DOLLAR DONATIONS would be greatly useful. In fact if we got ten dollar donations from all of the people reading in we would be swamped with funds to make a lot of kids happy at Christmas.

My special thanks to the silent donors from the past 2 projects who sent in very, very generous donations.



5.) ONCE AGAIN: This project is not connected in any way with OGR magazine and all questions will be addressed to me.

6.) Sets will be given out as close to Christmas as the ambassadors deem feasible.

Thank you,
Bob C.

AMBASSADOR VOLUNTEERS URGENTLY NEEDED

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

Hi Bob

I was most pleased to see your post.

I'll send my money off to Chris (who knows what Charlie will do with it in Vegas)

Seriously, I would also like to volunteer as an Ambassador. There is a single Mom and her boy who have attended the Ocean Co Society of Model RR's Open Houses. She does not have much and her son was just enthralled with the trains. I think I still have her contact info.

Thanks Bob for Planning the Attack.

All the best,

Paul

OK Ambassador Paul. I will contact you.

Thanks,
Bob C.

quote:

We will need 5 volunteers to be ambassadors this year so if interested please so indicate on this post. Ambassadors

Hi Bob. Put me down for Ambassador again this year. Keep me posted.

The checks can be made out to Nassau Hobby Center just as if you were making a purchase from them.

YES, I have already revised the original post to make this clear.

Bob C.

Bob,
I'll send a check off to Nassau Hobby. I'd would also like to volunteer as an ambassador.

OK Pennsyfan, you're in.

I am hoping that donations will come in early as I wan to talk charlie into buying 5 sets and expansion packs right now.

Thanks,
Bob C.

NOTE:

We now have 4 volunteer ambassasdors with us. Right now we will list anyone who wants to volunteer even if over 5 in number in case we do more than the predicted 5 sets.

Ill send a check out.

Alex

Count me in for $25

Thanks Bill and Alex.

I replied to your email.

Bob;

Sorry to hear about you having been sick. Glad you're feeling better. I was wondering why we hadn't heard from you for a while.

My check is on the way to Nassau Hobby. Sorry it couldn't be more but the wife's job was eliminated last year. That was a lot of income to lose. We just tell ourselves that there's a kid out there who needs this $25 more than we do.

Keep up the good work.

I am sending a check and volunteer to be an ambassador

bluelinec4: Thanks. I have you on the list of ambassadors.

NOTE: We now have 5 ambassadors but we would like more to volunteer in case we go over the projected 5 sets. If we can buy more than 5 sets but have no ambassadors for them we will have to figure out an alternative course such as giving sets to the Marine Corps Christmas toy drive. Of course, in that case, we get no feedback about the actual recipients.

SPECIAL NOTE: Any ambassador may give away more then one set if he wishes.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

We will wait until Sept 1 to tally up the donations received up to that time and then make a decison on the final number of sets we can afford. Most donations come in during the first week of the donation period.

Bob C.

Robert, I hope you are doing better. I'll think about it but I mostly shot my wad last Christmas, giving away three complete layouts to local kids.

I prefer to be a 'czar.'
On a serious note, what does an ambassador do in this endeavor?

quote:

Originally posted by Alentown:
what does an ambassador do in this endeavor?

Chuck, see Point #3 in the first post on this thread for a description of the Ambassador's responsibilities.

I should note that the ambassadors do a lot in presenting their sets properly. they are the backbone and work horses of the project.

We need more volunteers for ambassador in case we get more then 5 sets to give out. We will know better on sept 1 just how many sets we can expect to get. I feel that altough the goal is 5 sets we may go over that number. I have also asked Mr. Calabrese by mail if Lionel can help us out, so we'll see if that bears fruit.


AMBASSADOR VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED

Thanks,
Bob C.

Charlienassau will get to me tomorrow and let me know the prices to us for the NYC Flyer set and for the associated expansion package, and I will report that info here. He is, as usual, charging us only his cost plus shipping.

Thanks,
Bob C.

Hey boys, we got us a static post for the first time in the history of the Trains for Kids projects. This is quite a treat, and we thank Allan Miller and Rich Melvin of OGR quite a lot on this.

For all project info just come to this post.

Bob C.


NOTE: MORE AMBASSSADOR VOLUNTEERS WANTED

NOTE: DONATIONS BEING ACCEPTED NOW

We will be reporting the amount of money we have on a daily basis so stay tuned here for all updated info.


AMBASSADOR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Thanks,
Bob C.

A list of the first 5 ambassadors ( FLIGHT A ) follows:

1.) railrunnin --- Paul

2.) trmn --------- Chris

3.) Pennsyfan ---- Robert

4.) John gardberg

5.) bluelinec4 --- Ben

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO FORM UP FLIGHT B AMBASSADORS

Thanks,
Bob C.

I just mailed my check to Nassau Hobby Center.

Stu
http://www.LionelNation.com/
All Lionel, All The Time

According to Charlie, the at cost prices to us are:

1.) NYC FLYER SET -------- $207.83

2.) EXPANSION PACKAGE ----- $93.93

TOTAL --------------------- $301.76

SPECIAL NOTE:
1.) Shipping costs will be covered by our generous supplier charlienassau.
2.) The expansion packages are now generic and do not carry the NYC roadname


MORE AMBASSADORS NEEDED - URGENTLY

Check mailed to Nassau Hobby Center today!

-Dustin

Put this under the title of 'my two cents worth": might that $93.93 be better spent on an accessory, Plasticville buildings, railroad signs, etc? If I were a kid getting a train set for a gift I wouldn't care if the train had 3 cars or five. But some play-value stuff would be really exciting.
I'll be happy to add some dollars to that 2-cents.
Thanks for the good work, guys.

Chuck, the expansion pack does have an operating car which gives the child some action. As I recall from last year, the suggestion of an operating accessory was vetoed for the sake of simplicity and to minimize wiring requirements for the child's parents during set ups in future years. I provided a tunnel (see below) with the sets I presented last year. I agree with you that it's nice to have something other than just the train to help spark their imaginations.
...................................

Bob, thanks for the clarification. I guess my enthusiasm for this endeavor lead me back to memory lane. I got as much joy from my plastic telephone poles, Plasticville diner, rr crossing signs (and yes, my tunnel) as I did from the trains themselves. In fact, since my dad often slept in the daytime (when working midnight shift for NYPD) I would play with my trains without even powering them up...and still had hours of fun.

My advisors on this project are charlienassau and Bob Snyder who was a hard working ambassador last year for us and who knows the ropes, so to speak.

We should start getting some donations coming in by today or tomorrow and they will be reported here. Right now, I feel that we need more ambassador volunteers. If it winds up that we can buy more then 5 sets and have no ambassadors for them, we will have to devise a plan of action.

thanks,
Bob C.

AMBASSADORS NEEDED

NOTE TO AMBASSADORS:

We want to get as many pictures of the presentations as is possible for posting.

thanks,
Bob C.

ALSO, once again, any ambassador may volunteer to give away more than one gift package.

Robert

What about donations in the form of trains. I have some NIB rolling stock which could be used instead of the expansion packs leaving the cash for more starter sets.

John

tr18

Thank you for the offer but we want to stick with the decision to go with expansion packs since we successfully did that last time and since the expansion packs have an operating car included. Also it gets complicated to move product from donors. Perhaps if we do only 5 sets you can then send some cars to ambassadors. I will let you know on this.

Thanks,
Bob C.

I'll be glad to be an Ambassador again if needed. Sign me up for "Flight B", but put me in position #10, not #6. It was so much fun and rewarding being able to present to needy children last year, that I would like to see any other Forumites have the privilege before I did it for a second year.

Thank you Bob. Flgiht B will have 5 ambassadors.



FLIGHT B AMBASSADORS:
1.) Chip Jackson

2.) 2318 Justin

3.) BuddyRock

4.) MarioC

5.) Dennis Bracey


NOTE: Bob Snyder ( will serve as a backup )

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

Check mailed out to Charlie at Nassau today.

Dewey: Thanks a lot and thanks for your support in the past as well.

Bob C.

DONATION MONEY IN TODAY 8/14/09

$420.00


DONORS:

R. Coniglio

Charles Ambrogio Sr. ( TrainPop )

Robert Amling ( Pennsyfan )

Paul Licata ( railrunnin )

Bob Snyder

Thanks to these donors.
Bob C.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

NOTE:

From this point on, I will refer to "Trains for Kids" as TFK.



AMBASSADOR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Thanks,
Bob C.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

DONATIONS RECEIVED TODAY 8/15/09


Total for the day ---- $132.00

DONORS WERE:

Stuart Rankin ( LionelLLC )

Dustin & lauren Lee ( Frizzinbee )

William Pierce ( billp213 )

Robert Coniglio

TOTAL TO DATE ------ $551.00

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

DONATION TOTAL RECEIVED TODAY 8/17/09 ------ $352.00

DONORS FOR TODAY:

Robert Fehsenfeld

Dewey Trogdon

Charles J. Genna ( Alentown )

TOTAL DONATIONS TO DATE: ---- $903.00


AMBASSADOR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

THERE WERE NO DONATIONS RECEIVED TODAY -- 8/18/09


TOTAL FUNDS TO DATE ----- $903.00

NO DONATIONS WERE RECEIVED TODAY --8/19/09

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

DONATIONS RECEIVED TODAY 8/20/09 ----- $165.00

DONORS:

Ben Fioriello ( bluelinec4 )

Markk Weihman



TOTAL RECEIVED TO DATE ----- $1068.00

This message has been edited. Last edited by: robertconiglio,

Where do I send my items which are used but excellent? Believe many have
expressed the cash poor scenario and cannot or barely sell their items at a fairprice
on our sales list.
Any solution on all this?

L.

Lars,
I think that you have a valid discussion point; however this thread is focused on a specific project. Why not move your discussion to a separate topic?